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Blackboard Collaborate vs HCL Sametime comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Blackboard Collaborate
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
20th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HCL Sametime
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Blackboard Collaborate is 2.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL Sametime1.6%
Blackboard Collaborate2.3%
Other96.1%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

YN
Teaching and Learning Systems Manager at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Useful in webinars, meetings and online classrooms
One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS.
Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature.  The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway. I view…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS."
"The solution allows me to connect and collaborate with student live time, or asynchronously."
"The software is easy to use, has clear navigation and structure, and is highly customizable from an administrators standpoint (I've administered and used it as a client)."
"This solution has provided an additional way to connect with students and they feel like it allows for participation in a variety of ways."
"Document loading and annotation."
"A very good communication and real-time collaboration software, it is simple, fast, reliable, keeps history and the best feature of all is its intelligence."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"This solution saves time and cost in communicating with team members, streamlines tasks in my organization by encouraging us to chat directly with the relevant person, and strengthens professional relationships through increased communication among peers."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"The security was quite good."
 

Cons

"Originally, I was disappointed in behavior of the early Ultra version. It did not exhibit to students what I am showing on my own machine."
"We faced outages when the user limit went over a certain number."
"I wish I could upload assignments from my Android tablet or iPhone, but I guarantee that specific feature is in the works."
"If there were maybe more tutorials outside of what I'm aware the university is suggesting, I would take more tutorials on effective ways to deliver content. I come from the industry and content was always needed when people that were observing were smart and involved and decision-makers instead of so passively just trying to pass the course. In my imagination, the tutorials would be a tool where the learners themselves can have much more hands-on learning during a Collaborate session."
"The system can overload when too many try logging in."
"I occasionally had difficulties logging in because I think that the system was overloaded with too many people."
"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"It seems that the software might in the future, support the software telephony exchange but at the current time, it is not doing that and because of that one key feature of real-time communication is missing from it."
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Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with HCL Sametime?
I view it as part of HCL Notes and Domino, and my opinion is similar to those products. It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or oth...
What is your primary use case for HCL Sametime?
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily.
What advice do you have for others considering HCL Sametime?
Overall, it was quite good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It's a better product than some others from HCL, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it, given the availability of superior alternatives.
 

Also Known As

Blackboard Mobile
Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby Online, Universty of Warwick, University of Liverpool, City College Norwich, Northumberland College, Mid-Kent College, Watson Pharmaceutials, Capella University, Shore Tel Sky, Lincoln PD, City of Somerville MA, Somerset County Council
Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Blackboard Collaborate vs. HCL Sametime and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.